Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Who loves North Dakota?!

I liked it better prior to the oil boom

Yeah, oil booms don't generally turn areas into any place somebody who likes open spaces would prefer. I spent part of the first Bakken oil boom in the early 1980's working on rigs in far eastern Montana, and got out as soon as I could afford to. (Was in college in those days.)

But in general I really like North Dakota. It doesn't have the real mountains of western Montana, and the kinds of hunting and fishing that go with them, but I like hunting and fishing the plains too. Have hunted big game and birds and fished in NoDak, and done other outdoor stuff like backpacking in the badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, amid the bison and bighorns. I like it.

Must be around Rosholt or New Effington.

Ditto. Boom has brought in a lot of A-holes. Lots and lots of them. While I like trees, there something about that horizon to horizon vista. Especially at night, if you can get away from the light pollution.

Kaiser Norton

If we'd get a COLD snap about the first of March, along with the layoffs and downturn, most of the pansies would leave I think.

Nope, the big city, Sisseton. It's been oddly warm lately, above freezing. But then November was like January if you believe my heating bill. Talked to the game warden the other day, trucks going through on Traverse and Big Stone. Now Traverse I can understand.

Odd those lakes with Traverse flowing north and Big Stone south and you can throw a rock from one to the other. Where does all that water come from?

Thinking Sisseton is more than 20 miles. IIRC it was over an hour with a load of cattle and 45 min empty.

I do. No apology.

It's beautiful and friendly.


This is what has been done to it.

http://www.willistonherald.com/not-...b8163ca-a403-11e4-9180-c377aef7d584.html

Could be. I had Brown's Valley in mind, that's 10 east. ND border is not quite 20 north of here. Can see ND and MN from the hills (where the water comes from) which are about 6 west of town on a good day. That last glacier did some pretty cool stuff.

The badlands and adjoining rolling prairies are nice country to hunt.....

My folks are about 10 miles north of Wheaton. 3 miles from Whiterock.

Whenever I drive up I-29 by Sisseton I stop at the ridge and take in the view of the glacial scrape.

Amazing what a chunk of ice did.

Yeah, that valley was a HUGE lake when the glacier melted, Sisseton was under water. Would have been something to see when it let loose. Best part is the glacier left a bunch of good fishing lakes and potholes for duck production.

If you get off at the Sisseton exit and go west on Hwy 10 through town and about five miles further you'll find the Torness tower and interpretive center. (Harold, a fur buyer turned banker built it and donated it to the city. AKA Harold's Erection ) Three state view from the tower and interesting stuff in the interpretive center. Harold was big on the explorer Nicollet. Nothing spectacular but if you have some time. Also if you continue to the top of the hill there's a couple of interesting hysterical markers. Fort Sisseton is good for a visit, it's original and not a reconstruction as so many historical sites are.

Bucktail, don't think I've been through Wheaton. Was through White Rock a couple years ago looking for hunting spots and it was just about gone. With all the old and agency buildings when we moved here I thought of doing a photo essay. Wish I had.

We liked it better prior to the 'Sconi boom on Devils Lake and the south central potholes.

I haven't seen much of Sisseton other than the stockyard. Some of my HS classmates used to go over there to the Peanut Bar because they used to serve minors. Is it still open?

You haven't missed much, like other east river small towns except with a larger Indian population. Not nearly so wild as it once was. The Peanut Bar is still there, actually have never been in it. Have a cousin that was here with the Highway Patrol twenty-couple years ago, not long before we moved here. Was cautioned that's the last bar to go to unless you were looking for a fight. My favorite of his stories is that a guy kept a horse in town in his back yard. To simplify watering he cut out the kitchen window and filled the sink. Um, we'll think of something before winter, I guess.

Worked out of Williston in 1980 during the first little oil boom. Have some great memories.
Is the State Line Club still there?
Made that drive a couple times to party on after the bars closed in ND.

I spent many happy days, bowhunting down by the confluence, just west of Williston. Also used to love the Little Mo grasslands, near the Elkhorn ranch. Didn't get much better that sitting in the cottonwoods, watching a buck come down the trail.

He's geographically challenged (to be politically correct).

I remember that story from when I was a kid. Never saw it though.